In making a bed, the top sheet is conventionally tucked in tightly between the bottom of the mattress and the top of the box spring, providing a clean and wrinkle-free look. However, this leaves no room for the legs or feet of the person(s) using the bed.
The typical prior-art situation is illustrated in FIG. 1, wherein a top sheet 102 is tucked in at areas 110 between the mattress 104 and box spring 106. As shown in the cross-section of FIG. 2, this situation results in very little volume 200 when the bed is typically made, providing little or no room for the legs or feet 210 of a user.
While there do exist proposed solutions to this problem, they tend to be overly complicated and/or expensive to manufacture. According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,308,626, a fitted top sheet includes a construction which provides a foot accommodating space when placed in position on a mattress. The sheet has a one piece construction wherein the fitted bottom corners and foot accommodating space are formed by sewing the cut edges of two cut-outs in each side of a generally rectangular piece of material.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,098 is directed to a fitted top sheet with a pleat across the foot end thereof to provide room for a user's feet when placed on a mattress. The fitted sheet is of one piece construction with the space being provided by cutting a generally square section out of two adjacent corners at a narrow end of a generally rectangular sheet, folding a portion of the sheet toward the cut edges on the longer side of the sheet parallel thereto, folding the cut edges at each corner and the adjoining folded edges at right angles to the main sheet surface into overlapping contact with each other at each corner, securing the cut edges and folds of the longer sheet side with the cut edge of the sheet end on each corner by sewing or similar means, seaming the end of the fold spaced away from the cut edge along the side surface of the sheet at right angles to the long edge of the sheet, and placing an elastic material along the outer edge of the folded end and extending along each of the side edges to the seam at the fold spaced apart from the cut edge to form a fitted end when placed around a mattress.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 6,532,608, a fitted top sheet for a bed has pockets for receiving a mattress at a toe end of the sheet, and a transverse pleat or flap at the toe end for accommodating the user's feet. The pleat and the mattress pocket are formed form a single notch cut into each corner of the toe end of the sheet, with the opposed sides of each notch joined together with a single seam extending the length of the notch. The seam may be formed from a line of stitching of a contrasting color from the sheet body, to form a visual indicator to readily identify the upper or lower sides of the sheet. The sheet is fabricated by a method of cutting a notch into the two lower toe corners of the sheet, with the notch having an interior, relatively steep region, merging with a peripheral relatively shallow region.
Other proposed solutions involve the use of pockets or partial pockets. U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,456 discloses a fitted top sheet adapted for use on a mattress having a given width, a given length and a given thickness, the sheet having a width greater then the given mattress width, parallel side edges and a bottom edge, the sheet including an upper portion and a lower portion folded beneath the upper portion, the edges of the lower portion being non-elastically sewn to the side edges of the upper portion to form a pocket, and the bottom edge of the sheet being elastically gathered to a width approximately equal to the given mattress width when in an unstretched condition.
Despite these articles the need remains for a fitted top sheet that provides enhanced leg and foot room while, at the same time, is easily manufactured and esthetically visually pleasing.